2013 Venice International Film Festival: Day 5

Palazzo del Cinema © la Biennale di Venezia

• Day 5 - Sunday, September 1

Screening today:

In competition, from the USA, Parkland by Peter Landesman.

Captures the assassination of President Kennedy and the immediate aftermath through the stories of witnesses and staff at the hospital where the wounded president was taken. The cast includes James Badge Dale, Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden, Billy Bob Thornton, Jackie Weaver, and Paul Giamatti.

In competition, from Japan, 風立ちぬ (The Wind Rises) by Hayao Miyazaki.

A historical fantasy from the master of animation. His first solo effort since 2008's Ponyo, it is based on a manga that tells the fictionalised biography of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the 'Zero', the legendary long range fighter plane used by the Imperial Navy in WWII

The third film in competition today, from Greece, Miss Violence by Alexandros Avranas.

The story of a family of an eleven-year-old girl who unexplicably decides to leap to her death from her balcony on her birthday.

Also of note, screening in the Orizzonti section, from the USA, Palo Alto by Gia Coppola.

The directorial debut from the grandaughter of Francis Ford and niece of Sofia. An unflinching tale on teen angst and adult ineptitude starring James Franco, Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, and Val Kilmer.


Venezia 70 Competition Film
Parkland
directed by Peter Landesman
USA, 92'


Synopsis:

Parkland recounts the chaotic events that occurred in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. By focusing on Secret Service agents, local police officers, the nurses and doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital where the wounded president was taken, on Abraham Zapruder whose 8mm camera filmed the assassination and on Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother and brother, the film weaves together the perspectives of a handful of ordinary individuals suddenly thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
Critical Reception:


"Mostly, it feels like witnessing someone play a cruel jack-in-the-box trick on dozens of innocent bystanders, watching the belief in humanity fade from one face after another."Peter Debruge (Variety)
"Proves both melodramatic and undernourished, although this ensemble piece is grimly compelling throughout."Tim Grierson (Screen Daily)
"The best thing about "Parkland" is having "The Hurt Locker" DoP Barry Ackroyd on board, bringing a raw immediacy to the camerawork that conveys the chaos of those confusing days. "Matt Mueller (Thompson on Hollywood)
"Filled with sharp details that will be eye-opening to most viewers, the film is exceptionally well made, with a fine cast making the most of small but telling roles."Stephen Farber (The Hollywood Reporter)
"If the film finally doesn't tell us anything we did not already know, the approach makes a worn-out old tragedy feel supple and urgent."Xan Brooks (The Guardian)
"Instantly distinguished itself as this year’s first howling dud."Robbie Collin (The Telegraph)
"Sadly, this Tom Hanks-produced drama really has no place in competition at a major film festival."John Bleasdale (Cine-vue)
Venezia 70 Competition Film
風立ちぬ (The Wind Rises)
directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Japan, 126'


Synopsis:

Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes, inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni. Nearsighted from a young age and thus unable to become a pilot, Jiro joins the aircraft division of a major Japanese engineering company in 1927. His genius is soon recognized, and he grows to become one of the world’s most accomplished airplane designers.
Critical Reception:


"Elegiac, hauntingly beautiful historical drama ... marked by flights of incredible visual fancy, harrowing images of poverty and destruction, and touches of swooning romance."Scott Foundas (Variety)
"It might not be the director's most immediately accessible films, but it's among his most fascinating and beguiling."Oliver Lyttelton (The Playlist)
"Here is a film with a clean outline and a foggy centre. I wanted to love it, tried to love it and then went down in flames."Xan Brooks (The Guardian)
"A melodrama so earnest, rousing and robustly built that you'd swear it could've come out of Hollywood in the 1940s."David Jenkins (Little White Lies)
"As an avowed Miyazaki-ite, did I love The Wind Rises? On a first watch, no – but it strikes me that fanboyish adoration would be entirely the wrong response to this film, just as you wouldn’t walk out of a late-period Ozu or Bresson punching the air and whooping for a sequel."Robbie Collin (The Telegraph)
"By this point, Miyazaki can direct timeless animation in his sleep, and it’s astonishing to see the old master challenging himself and the medium he helped define to tell this intimate, personal story."Michael Leader (Film4)
"Miyazaki fans will spot some fresh new touches here, some of them related to the art of the twenties and thirties, with German Expressionism, Fauvism and Social Realism among the movements referenced in the look of certain scenes."Lee Marshall (Screen Daily)
Venezia 70 Competition Film
Miss Violence
directed by Alexandros Avranas
Greece, 99'


Synopsis:

On the day of her birthday, eleven-year old Angeliki jumps off the balcony and falls to her death with a smile on her face. While the police and social services try to discover the reason for this apparent suicide, Angeliki’s family keep insisting that it was an accident. What is the secret that young Angeliki took with her? Why does her family persist in trying to “forget” her and to move on with its life?
Critical Reception:


"Attentive audiences will have long figured out what’s up and what’s most disturbing about the film is indeed its placid, almost non-descript surface."Boyd van Hoeij (The Hollywood Reporter)
"New Greek cinema has been so flooded of late with fun-for-the-whole-family nightmare narratives that this one has limited capacity to shock, but a committed tone and immaculate craft should ensure ample fest exposure for the pic’s predictable perversions."Guy Lodge (Variety)
"Miss Violence is a much less wantonly quirky film than those of Lanthimos (Dogtooth) and Tsangari (Attenberg): it derives its shock value from the fact that it stays (just) within the bounds of the believable."Lee Marshall (Screen Daily)
"A well-shot, adequately-acted film, but is also - much to its great shame - a cliché-ridden slice of miserablist European exploitation."John Bleasdale (Cine-vue)
Orizzonti Film
Palo Alto
directed by Gia Coppola
USA, 98'


Synopsis:

An unflinching take on teen angst and adult ineptitude, Palo Alto is from first-time helmer Gia Coppola. Teddy, April, Fred and Emily use booze, marijuana and sex to get through the turmoil of adolescence.
Critical Reception:


"While “Palo Alto” doesn’t seem to be saying anything new exactly, it boasts a clear and confident voice of its own, and it will be exciting to see where the young Coppola goes from here."Peter Debruge (Variety)
"Though it lacks a cohesive means of fusing together its interlocking vignettes, "Palo Alto" effectively showcases the despair and sophomoric rebellion of teen life with a mature eye that clearly establishes a new filmmaker to watch."Eric Kohn (Critic Wire)
"The best feature film directed by someone named Coppola in a number of years, Palo Alto is a dreamy looking, unsensationalized portrait of badly behaved residents of a notably affluent California town."Todd McCarthy (The Hollywood Reporter)

Screening tomorrow (Monday, September 2):

• Tom À La Ferme by Xavier Dolan (In Competition)
• The Zero Theorem by Terry Gilliam (In Competition)
• The Sacrament by Ty West (Orizzonti)

See our other #Venice2013 coverage:

• Day 4 (Night Moves, Child of God, Philomena)
• Day 3 (The Police Officer's Wife, Joe, Wolf Creek 2)
• Day 2 (Tracks, A Street in Palermo, Why Don't You Play in Hell?)
• Day 1 (Gravity)